Category: Photography

Ever since I was introduced to cloud storage like Dropbox, Google Drive, and other similar cloud storage services, it changed my life. Those cloud storage services give me the ability to access my files from anywhere as long as I am connected to internet. Further, when smart phones became the main stream, it allows me to back up my photos and videos to those services. Such a convenience, do not have to worry about losing photos, ability to access on the smart phone or on the computer.

Western Digital My Cloud. Personal cloud storage

Today, I want to talk about My Cloud by Western Digital. I have this product for about 3 years, and it has been very reliable in backing and synchronizing my data across all of my devices.

Let’s talk about the Good, Bad, and the Ugly.

The Good:

It is a fairly inexpensive device to own. It gives me the piece of mind that all of my data is stored locally in my home and not at some corporation’s computer. It came with few softwares / apps that can be installed on your PC or smart phones. You can setup backups, Sync files, and simply access it directly by mapping the device in your computer. My favorite software that came with it is called WD Sync. I installed WD Sync in all of my computers, and selected My Documents and My Pictures to be sync. This allows me to have the same documents and pictures in all of my devices. I do not have to worry about the files I may have at work or at home. I can continue my work from any computer where the WD Sync is installed.

The Bad:

As I mentioned above, one of the feature I like that come with My Cloud is a smart phone app to automatically save your photos and videos. Although it’s doing a pretty good job on backing up the photos and videos, accessing the photos and videos is a different story. There is usually 30 seconds lag to open up the photos, even if you are in the same network. Accessing the photos / videos through data from service provider is just unbearable. For photos and videos I still prefer Google Photos. For your reference, the internet speed in my home is averaging 100mbps download and 12mbps upload.

The Ugly:

Being an older model and the first generation of My Cloud, this device does not come with the ability to stream content. Newer devices and more expensive devices usually come with media server. Nor it has the ability to host web servers or web applications.

In Conclusion:

If you need a solid, dependable, and inexpensive device with the ability to sync or to backup your data, this device is for you. It is nice to have your files and data sync across your devices.

Below are 2 pictures from Sony and Sigma lens with almost exactly the same setting: ISO500, f4, 1/320 sec at about 30mm and within minutes from each other. At the same f stop of f4, both of these lenses are producing very similar images and brightness. Both of these lenses are very sharp.